What would you consider the most reliable coaster?

Bad capacity!? Where in the world have you been riding Intamin coasters? Maverick is quite possibly one of the most people-hungry rides at the Point (average hourly was around 1,100+ in 2007 while my roommate was there), right up there with Magnum and Raptor. Millennium is no slouch either on capacity, as I'm pretty sure they hit upwards of 1,000 on a regular basis (or did last I knew). Even Dragster gets good numbers at times.

As for Arrows being the Jaguars of the coaster world...I don't mind rough coasters, but my goodness, Arrows aren't quite the luxury coasters you make them out to be. The only Arrow I've ever ridden that was actually smooth was Tennessee Tornado, and it was scary how smooth it was. As for the restraint issue, while there is no question that going to OTSR for nearly every ride regardless of having inversions is overkill, they did have several falls from rides with the T-bars (nevermind the fact that I'm pretty sure they were due to operator error and not at all because of the restraint design), and I am not surprised to see the move to entirely OTSRs.

^
Millenium Force-1600
Maverick-1200
Raptor-1800
Top Thrill Dragster-1500
Magnum-xl-200-2000
Corckscrew-1800

Intamins are not even close to Magnums and even Raptor.

Once youve ridden 1 B&M youve done them all? Um, no, you can say that maybe about some of their midsize rides but heres their unique (and in my opinion fantastic) ones:
-B:TR (I dont care if its cloned to death, this ride is still a great ride and no Invert since then has matched it in intensity)
-Raptor (two words my friend: final helix)
-Montu (whats that, a vert. loop after the MCBR, oh and a batwing, and what it spends a good time below ground level)
-Alpengeist (the run it has prior to the MCBR is simply unmatched by any other invert pure bliss)
-Great Bear
-Dueling Dragons
-Batman: Knight Flight (havent ridden it since its name/park changed)
-Superman Krypton Coaster
-Raging Bull
-Apollo's Chariot
-Diamondback
-The Georgia Scorcher (only standup I really enjoy)
-Shikra

And I know there are others out there I simply have not ridden yet:
-Nemesis
-Ridlers Revenge

B&Ms are great coasters. But not Cedar Point's. Raptor might have slightly better capacity, who cares. The ride hurts unless you ride in the front. I have been in every single row just to give it another try.

Raptor hurts you, really? The only B&M that bashes me is Iron Wolf. Ive seen. Mitch's Steel Coaster Poll puts Raptor at #47, thats the #4 Invert there (from what I can tell, I may have miscounted.)

coolkid, those are theoretical capacity numbers, and we all know that TTD probably never has hit 1,500 in an hour (or ever will, for that matter). Maybe Ben, Matt, or Jo could clarify the Raptor and Magnum numbers, but I'm almost 100% sure Magnum doesn't hit quite as high as the theoretical. The same goes for Raptor. Those numbers are all the theoretical numbers released with the ride announcements that are based on practically perfect interval, no slowdowns because of guests, etc. I believe the "official" capacity listed in the Blue Streak manual is 1,000 or more, which as its run right now, is pretty much out of reach. The average capacity of my crew in 2007 with the old airline style belts was probably an average of around 650 for most busy days, with our highest hourly number being about 750 if I remember correctly. With the retractable seat belts last year, they pushed that high up to somewhere around or above 850, and that was almost completely because of the seat belt change (you would be surprised how quickly having to untangle and buckle lots of empty belts accumulates). I also find Corkscrew's number impossibly high, given that it stacks a majority of the time. There is no realistic way that ride moves more people than Maverick.

LuvRaptor said:
Intamins are pieces of crap.
Top Thrill Crapster had been a nightmare from Media Day on. Why be impressed at the way it runs now that is how many years later? Kinda Kaka another piece of crap. SFGrtAdv got what they deserved building that knowing what a disaster TTD was. It seems like GrtAdv has had worse luck with KK then even we managed with TTD.
Lets not forget Maverick.
Granted none as bad as TTD but a close 2nd.

As for head banging, the only place you have to be careful is the reverse cobra roll, the rest is cake. After 2k+ rides I feel I know what Im talking about.

Wow, that actually hurt my feelings.:(

Why be impressed? Why not? 03-05 was the worst that's for sure, but no credit for the past 3 years? Now that's just heartless. I know I'm not one to talk but while I love Raptor (one of my favorite B&M's) I'd hardly put as high on a pedestal as you do. After being forced to ride it 12 times in a row, I literally had to get a motrin, a cold rag and lie down on a bench for about 20 minutes before my massive headache went away. I know the ride, I know the bad spots, but I guess I'm just not as resilient as yous older folks (and Ben too). I'm just very prone to getting headaches from overriding Raptor, Magnum, MF, and WT.
And while I agree about the Ka comment, I however will not agree on the Dragster = disaster part. Dragster has made leaps and bounds to reach a FAR better capacity than it has in previous years. And to give it and CP no credit is criminal.

Heck I was very disappointed in Raptor last year and previous years for the stacking issues (which is what made me not ride it) but this year was a great improvement due to the great crew.

I know this wont convince you any about Dragster/intamins since youre Raptors go to girl and loyal follower. But please lay off the harsh comments just a bit......please.<:-)

P.S.-Did an intamin kill a dog of yours or something? :P

It usually takes around 15-20 rides in a row before Raptor starts to get to me. Magnum doesn't seem to affect me.

Capacities of Raptor and Magnum are both in the 1600-2000 range I thought. I know Magnum can do in that range if they are filling empties and hitting intervals.

And I think you need some midol to go with your motrin. :P

Touchdown said:
Once youve ridden 1 B&M youve done them all? Um, no, you can say that maybe about some of their midsize rides but heres their unique (and in my opinion fantastic) ones:
-B:TR (I dont care if its cloned to death, this ride is still a great ride and no Invert since then has matched it in intensity)
-Raptor (two words my friend: final helix)
-Montu (whats that, a vert. loop after the MCBR, oh and a batwing, and what it spends a good time below ground level)
-Alpengeist (the run it has prior to the MCBR is simply unmatched by any other invert pure bliss)
-Great Bear
-Dueling Dragons
-Batman: Knight Flight (havent ridden it since its name/park changed)
-Superman Krypton Coaster
-Raging Bull
-Apollo's Chariot
-Diamondback
-The Georgia Scorcher (only standup I really enjoy)
-Shikra

And I know there are others out there I simply have not ridden yet:
-Nemesis
-Ridlers Revenge

I don't think you read my post. I said their inverts are the only ride type they have that have any kind of uniqueness to them. Their inverts are far and away their best designs. Their hypers pretty much go hill, hill, hammerhead/helix, hill, hill, turn, hill, hill, brakes. Great rides all of them, I never discounted their quality, but they get old when you go to park after park and it feels like you've ridden them all before. Basically every floorless (with a few exceptions) has a loop, zero-G roll, cobra roll (sometimes with a dive loop thrown in there), brakes, interlocking corkscrews, brakes.

Once again, I didn't say anything about their rides not being good, I was basically just saying that B&M's are reliable because they take an extremely low amount of chances. Intamin will build a top 5 coaster in the world, and if it has some glitches, so be it. I know personally, 4 of my top 5 steel coasters are Intamins, and I'll be riding El Toro next week, which is sure to crack my top 5 woodies easily. Who cares if they break down from time to time or even frequently? They're still fantastic rides.

What else are hypers besides hill, hill, hill turnaround, hill, hill, etc. The out and back is the oldest and one of the most beloved coaster designs. Also, you never acknowledged Raging Bull which is anything but an out and back. Also, I listed the floorless and standup models that were unique.

What you think is a top 5 coaster and what others think are a top 5 coaster are two things entirely, personally my top 5 steel consists of 2 B&Ms (Alpengeist, Raptor,) 2 Intamins (S:ROS SFNE, MF) and an Arrow (Magnum.)

2,000 on Magnum is pretty much impossible, but if the lift is running at the speed it's supposed to giving you a dispatch interval of 1:15, your theoretical max is 1,728. In '04, the lift was running a little slower (making the interval about 1:20), giving us a theoretical max of 1,620 and we'd hit 1,600 pretty regularly since we'd pretty much hit every single interval and fill every single seat. We'd have hours of 1700+ here and there, but it was just because we took the reading a minute or two late or we had more people on the platform at the end of the hour than at the beginning. Big hours like that are usually followed by one that seems a little lower than it should. The crew this year is not hitting interval consistently. It pains me to say this, but they are probably going to get spanked by Raptor in the final numbers. Raptor should be higher than last year by 300,000+ based on what I've seen, unless they've had big downtime that I don't know about.

Magnum was a very reliable ride to work. Downtime was usually limited to a bad wheel or at worst, a bit of track welding in the morning or a lift motor - all pretty routine. I never remember being down for an entire day in three years there.

I don't think Maverick is hitting anything close to the numbers Magnum or Raptor can achieve. Even at it's best I'd be surprised if they ever have hours over 1,100 or so. The line moves pretty consistently, but not exactly fast. Same with MF and Dragster really. Magnum and Raptor are different animals. :)

Gemini. One side is usually rolling. I don't think I've ever seen Blue Streak down though.

Can't we all just get along? ;)

I rode Raptor 22x non stop in '00 (Millennium Mania) and didnt get any headache or anything. Even this season reriding I dont have a problem. As for my hubby--well after rerides it isnt his head he has problems with, its his tummy.

The ONLY bad part on Raptor is the reverse cobra roll. Unless you plant your head back you're going to get hit 2x-once to the left and once to the right.

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2069

The crew was hitting interval for the 2008, 2007, 2006, season when i saw it. This year they are really slow. I have never seen such a slow crew

^^Of course we all get along.....we all love Raptor at least.:)

As long as some idiot doesn't decide to send an empty train on a cold windy closing day morning, I'll be happy.

I would have to say that Blue Streak is the most reliable. I have yet to see it have downtime. It was also the only coaster running in the rain to my knowledge, our last visit.

I only get to CP once or twice a year, but every visit I usually see MF having some sort of downtime. Last visit back in June it had quite a bit.

JuggaLotus said:
As long as some idiot doesn't decide to send an empty train on a cold windy closing day morning, I'll be happy.

Ditto!!! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2069 :)

I know that last year Maverick was having its share of problems, especially opening day 2008! We waited for over two hours and then when it was our turn, they loaded us on the train and then took us off and closed it! After that I gave up and decided to ride it another day!

I have never had a problem with raptor with my head.and it has bein working all the times i have had bein to the point.Maverick is the most unreliable it is down than it is up and I had to wait till this year to ride it.and dragster is always down or inconsistent with running on time so....But i will say in addition The Mine Ride i have never see it closed all the times i have bein to the point